MERCY FOR THE MESSY

“I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion” – Romans 9:15

There's something that gladdens God's heart beyond measure: showing MERCY to the MESSY! The Lord specializes in releasing Mercy to the messy, irrespective of what human beings may feel or think: “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy” (Rom.9:15-16).

The best of Mercy is reserved for the "messed-up" who admit the errors of their ways, not for the self-righteous person who thinks he needs no aid. If you’re humble and willing to admit you’ve messed up, you’re a prime candidate for an encounter with Mercy personified - Jesus. His special ministry is to messed-up people. Jesus gravitates toward those who are typically ignored, ridiculed, hated and rejected.

One of the greatest examples of this is found in the fourth chapter of John's gospel. Here, Jesus encountered a woman at a well. This nameless woman met Him while she performed one of the most mundane tasks in her messed-up life — drawing water out of a well. "Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw" (Jh. 4:13-15). She quickly learned a lesson we all need to learn as well: the mundane can become momentous when we let Jesus clean up our mess-ups and radically change our lives. Jesus wants to clean up our mess-ups so much that He will break down every possible barrier to do so.

Mercy will bridge barriers in order to minister to messy lives. For example, to meet the woman at the well, Jesus overcame the barriers of culture and morality. He overcame the cultural barrier as He travelled through a region that His people - the Jews - would always avoid. The merciful Lord saw culture, not as a barrier to compassion, but as a bridge to ministry. Then, Jesus overcame a moral barrier. This woman carried a terrible track record. Her past put her in the category of a Hall-of-Fame sinner. She had been married five times and was now living with a man who wasn’t her husband. With this ignoble reputation, everyone in the community knew her for her vices, and no man would dare to speak with her in public.

No man, except Jesus! The Lord engaged with this rejected woman, in order to deal with her mess-up. We live in a culture that teaches us to veil our vices and hide our mess-ups and label them anything except the sins that they are. Jesus demonstrated through this woman that He will forgive us when we are willing to confess our sin to Him. Jesus is not intimidated by our past. He sees beyond our failures and offers us a fulfilling future. God will redeem your past. He will turn your past into purpose. The Father of mercies will change your present condition according to His good pleasure.

Have you ever messed up so badly that it left you believing God wants nothing to do with you? If your answer is "yes," then you’re in good company, because we all have. Jesus will break every possible barrier to reach you. Jesus is so serious about His mission that He left heaven and came to earth to restore anyone who is willing to be cleansed. Today, you can meet with Jesus, bring Him your mess-ups, and allow Him to clean you up. God's Mercy will fix all of your mess, in whichever aspect of life they may be. His Mercy assures hope for a messed-up life, messed-up marriages, messed-up relationships, and messed-up destinies.